Dragon Age: The Veilguard (PC/PS5/Xbox)

New information from Game Informer

On Name Change:

• "We quickly learned and realized that the absolute beating heart of this game is these authentic, diverse companions." - Game Director Corinne Bushe
• Focus is on the team rather than Solas as the Dreadwolf and so the name was changed to reflect that
• "Dreadwolf suggests a title focused on a specific individual whereas The Veilguard, much like Inquisition, focuses more on the team" - Creative Director John Epler

On Character Customization:

• 4 races - Elves, Qunari, Humans, and Dwarves
• Can select pronouns separately from gender and adjust physical characteristics like height, shoulder width, chest size, glute and bulge size, hip width, how bloodshot your eyes are, how crooked your nose is and more
• Hundreds of sliders to customize proportions and features like skin hue, tone, melanin and more
• Can customize genitalia (may not actually be true but they mention that your character can be nude in the character creator when you are customizing them with stuff like bulge size)
• 4 distinct voices (American Male/Female, British Male/Female) along with a pitch shifter for each voice to make them unique to your character

On how Rook becomes the leader:

• Ascends to leadership due to competency rather than destiny (although technically there is some sort of magical reason too that I will not go into)

On Minrathous:

• Huge city painted in magical insignia
• Looks cyberpunk-inspired with neon city lights and brimming with detail
• Dozens of NPCs
• NPCs are all made using the character creation tool in the game outside of specific characters such as your recruitable companions
• Murals of Solas appear on the walls deep within the city and things get more Elven as if you were symbolically going back in time as Minrathous is a city built by mages on the bones of what was originally the home of Elves

On Base of Operations:

• Called "The Lighthouse", this is the Skyhold equivalent of the game
• Where your team bonds, grows and prepares for its adventures throughout the campaign
• Responds to your world state and emotion and reflects the chaos and disrepair of Thedas
• Optional conversations here will have a clock symbol over a dialogue icon in the distance for each character that you can speak to
• Library is where your party will often regroup and prepare for the next mission
• Companions will have unique dialogue with you at the base based on current events along with your Rook's background

On Arlathan Forest:

• This is where you meet the Veil Jumpers faction
• BioWare does not shy away from minutes-long cutscenes as it helps you define your Rook's leadership style with your choices and how your team will react to your leadership
  • This is demonstrated within game's dialogue and a special relationship meter on each companion's character screen
• Elven ruins, dense greenery, and disgusting Blight tentacles and pustules
• Most impressive aspect of GI employee's time seeing the game
• Art style is more in line with high fantasy reminiscent of Fable
• Use of magic is more prevalent in the game in general which will be shown by the locations you visit
• Whimsy of area will starkly contrast to other areas with promise of some grim locations and even grimmer story moments
  • Contrast is important

On Bellara:

• First companion you meet and recruit in-game (Neve automatically joins)
• Like all companions, they are the face of their faction and your window into understanding their world
• Sweetheart and nerd for ancient elven artifacts
• Dressed more like an academic than a combat expert
• Specializes in electricity and can use magic to heal you
• Specific magic is more effective on certain enemies, however, you can equip runes that will provide you access to those different magics without necessarily having them as part of your arsenal
• Has a unique ability that interacts with the world, but Rook can acquire these abilities to complete ability specific tasks for instances where Bellara is not in your party

On the Menus:

• Pressing start will show you your map, journal, character sheets, skill tree and a library for lore information
• Can cross compare equipment and equip new gear for Rook and companions
• Build weapon loadouts for quick change-ups mid-combat
• Customize you and your party's abilities and builds via skill tree
• Passive abilities unlock jump attacks and guarantee critical hit opportunities
• Abilities add moves like "Wall of Fire"
• Each specialization has a unique ultimate ability

On Combat:

• Every swing is done in real-time with special care taken to animation swing-through and canceling
• Dash, parry, ability to charge moves and a revamped healing system allows you to use potions at your discretion using the d-pad on controller
• Can combo attacks and "bookmark" combos with a quick dash (can pause a combo's status with a dash to safety and continue the rest of the combo afterward)
• Pause-and-play gameplay mechanic
  • Can choose abilities, queue them up, and strategize with synergies and combos, all while targeting specific enemies
  • Letting go off wheel will play out your selections in real time
  • Bushe uses combat wheel primarily for companions while Epler uses it almost exclusively for every ability and combo
• Each character class has a light and heavy attack, using abilities with the same inputs and interact with the combo wheel in the same way
• The difference is in secondary attacks and defense
  • Warriors can throw their shield and can block and parry
  • Rogues can use a bow and have a longer parry window
  • Mages have magical ranged attacks and cannot parry but can throw up a shield that blocks incoming attacks automatically which uses up your mana
• Showcased some high-level gameplay
  • 3 stacks of arcane build-up to create an "Arcane Bomb" on an enemy which does devastating damage after being hit by a heavy attack
  • Charges a heavy attack on magical staff then switches to magical daggers in a second loadout accessed with a quick tap of down on the d-pad to unleash some quick attacks, then back to staff to charge it some more and unleash a heavy attack

On Performance:

• Demo ran well on PC
• Confirmed Fidelity and Performance modes on PS5 (likely same for Series X)

On Companion Skills:

• Can advance bonds by helping companions on their own personal quests and including them in your party for main quests
• Relationship levels you rank up nets you a skill point to spend on them
• Choices you make, what you say to your companions, how you help them, and more all matter to their development as characters and party members
• Each companion has access to five abilities, you can only take 3 into combat
  • Strategize different combos and synergies within your party
• Each companion has issues, problems, and personal quests to complete

On Not Being An Open World:

• Not an open world even if some of its explorable areas might feel like one
• Hub-and-spoke design where the needs of the story are served by the level design
• A version of Inquisition's Crossroads, network of teleporting Eluvians, returns
  • How players will traverse across Northern Thedas
• Some areas are larger and full of secrets and treasures while others are smaller and more focused on linear storytelling
• Arlathan Forest is an example of a smaller area but there are still optional paths and offshoots to explore for loot, healing potion refreshes, and more
• Minimap exists for each location though linear levels will not have a fog of war that disappears as you explore like some of the bigger locations
• Largest number of diverse biomes in series history

Some quick stats on the Skill Trees:

• All three are comprised of 168 total nodes
  • 13 Medium Diamond shaped nodes are for Active Abilities
  • 15 Large Diamond shaped nodes for Traits
  • 39 Large Circles for Major Passives and Upgrades
  • 57 Small Circles for Minor Passive and Stat Boosts
  • 36 Medium Spiked Circles for Ability upgrades
  • 3 Hexagons are for unlocking a Specialization(four when counting the one at the center you get as your default base class)
  • 4 Spiked Diamonds are for Unique Class/Specialization Ultimate Abilities
• There are 10 distinct sections of the Skill Tree
  • The core base class section at the center with 9 nodes
  • 6 outer ring sections that denote specific playstyles and features totaling 114 nodes
    • 3 are Entry points to the outer ring and focus on Control, Burst, and Sustain for Rogues/Mages, and Survival, Abilities, and Weapons for Warriors
    • 3 other out ring sections lead to the 3 specialization tracks and are possibly some hybrid of the two entry sections that boarder them and prelude to the specialization
  • 3 specializations islands totaling 45 nodes
• At lvl 30 the Warrior has spent 43 points, Rogue 41, and Mage 39
  • With 1 point per level, plus additional points you gain throughout the game through various choices and activities, max points are likely in the 70-80+ region based on the above examples, which means we'll be able to choose from about half of the available upgrade options when fully leveled and finished with the game

Other notable highlights:

• Rook can have two weapon loadouts for quick change in combat by pressing D-Pad Down, one example was a Mage using a Staff and Magic Daggers (currently unclear if this loadout feature includes the 3 active abilities or not)
  • "Busche begins charging a heavy attack on her magical staff, then switches to magical daggers in Rook's second loadout, accessed with a quick tap of down on the d-pad to unleash some quick light attacks, then back to the staff to finish charging its attack. She then unleashes the heavy attack, and the Arcane Bomb explodes in a liquidy whirl of green magic."